The United States a Christian nation

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THE UNITED STATES
A CHRISTIAN NATION

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THE UNITED STATES

A CHRISTIAN

NATION

BY

DAVID J. BREWER

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
of the United States

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THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY

1905

Copyright, 1905
By THE JOHN C, WINSTON COMPANY

Set up, electrotyped and published
September, 1905

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From the provisions of the donor :

"The money [$10,000] to be kept safely in-
vested, the Income only to be used for an annual
course or series of lectures before the senior
class of the College and other students, on the
Bible, its history, and its literature, and, as way
may open for it, upon its doctrine and its teach-
ing."

THREE LECTURES

To the Students of Haverford College

I. Thb United States a Christian Nation
II. Our Duty as Citizens
III. The Promise and the Possibility of the Future

I. THE UNITED STATES A
CHRISTIAN NATION

THE UNITED STATES A
CHRISTIAN NATION

WE classify nations in various ways.
as, for instance, by their form
of government. One is a king-
dom, another an empire, and
still another a republic. Also by
race. Great Britain is an Anglo-
Saxon nation, France a Gallic, Germany a
Teutonic, Russia a Slav. And still again by
religion. One is a Mohammedan nation,
others are heathen, and still others are Chris-
tian nations.

This republic is classified among the
Christian nations of the world. It was so
formally declared by the Supreme Court of
the United States. In the case of Holy
Trinity Church z f s. United States, 143 U. S.
471, that court, after mentioning various
circumstances, added, "these and many other
matters which might be noticed, add a vol-
ume of unofficial declarations to the mass of
organic utterances that this is a Christian

nation.

11

But in what sense can it be called a Chris-
tian nation? Not in the sense that Christi-
anity is the established religion or that the
people are in any manner compelled to sup-
port it. On the contrary, the Constitution
specifically provides that "Congress shall
make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof." Neither is it Christian in the sense
that all its citizens are either in fact or name
Christians. On the contrary, all religions
have free scope within our borders. Num-
bers of our people profess other religions,
^and many reject all. Nor is it Christian in
the sense that a profession of Christianity is
a condition of holding office or otherwise
engaging in the public service, or essential
to recognition either politically or socially.
In fact the government as a legal organiza-
tion is independent of all religions.

Nevertheless, we constantly speak of this
republic as a Christian nation — in fact, as
the leading Christian nation of the world.
This popular use of the term certainly has
significance. It is not a mere creation of
the imagination. It is not a term of derision
but has a substantial basis — one which justi-
fies its use. Let us analyze a little and see
what is the basis.

Its use has had from the early settlements
12

on our shores and still has an official founda-
tion. It is only about three centuries since
the beginnings of civilized life within the
limits of these United States. And those
beginnings were in a marked and marvelous
degree identified with Christianity. The
commission from Ferdinand and Isabella to
Columbus recites that "it is hoped that by
God's assistance some of the continents and
islands in the ocean will be discovered."
The first colonial grant, that made to Sir
Walter Raleigh, in 1584, authorized him to
enact statutes for the government of the
proposed colony, provided that "they be not
against the true Christian faith now pro-
fessed in the Church of England." The first
charter of Virginia, granted by King James
I, in 1606, after reciting the application of
certain parties for a charter, commenced the
grant in these words: "We, greatly com-
mending, and graciously accepting of, their
desires for the furtherance of so noble a
work, which may, by the providence of Al-
mighty God, hereafter tend to the glory of
His^ Divine Majesty, in propagating the
Christian religion to such people as yet live
in darkness and miserable ignorance of the
true knowledge and worship of God." And
language of similar import is found in subse-
quent charters of the same colony, from the

13

same king, in 1609 and 161 1. The cele-
brated compact made by the Pilgrims on the
Mayflower, in 1620, recites : "Having under-
taken for the glory of God and advancement
of the Christian faith and the honor of our
king and country a voyage to plant the first
colony in the northern parts of Virginia."

The charter of New England, granted
by James I, in 1620, after referring to a
petition, declares: "We, according to our
princely inclination, favoring much their
worthy disposition, in hope thereby to ad-
vance the enlargement of Christian religion,
to the glory of God Almighty."

The charter of Massachusetts Bay, granted
in 1629 by Charles I, after several provisions,
recites: "Whereby our said people, inhabi-
tants there, may be so religiously, peaceably
and civilly governed as their good life and
orderly conversation may win and incite the
natives of the country to their knowledge
and obedience of the only true God and
Saviour of mankind, and the Christian faith,
which in our royal intention and the adven-
turers free profession, is the principal end of
this plantation," which declaration was sub-
stantially repeated in the charter of Massa-
chusetts Bay granted by William and Mary,
in 1691.

The fundamental orders of Connecticut,
14

under which a provisional government was
instituted in 1638-1639, provided: "Foras-
much as it has pleased the Almighty God
by the wise disposition of His divine provi-
dence so to order and dispose of things that
we, the inhabitants and residents of Windsor,
Hartford and Wethersfield, are now cohabi-
tating and dwelling in and upon the River
of Connecticut and the lands thereto ad-
joining; and well knowing where a people
are gathered together the word of God re-
quires that to maintain the peace and union
of such a people there should be an orderly
and decent government established accord-
ing to God, to order and dispose of the
affairs of the people at all seasons as occa-
sion shall require ; do therefore associate and
conjoin ourselves to be as one public state
or commonwealth ; and do for ourselves and
our successors and such as shall be adjoined
to us at any time hereafter enter into combin-
ation and confederation together to main-
tain and preserve the liberty and purity of
the gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now
profess, as also the discipline of the churches,
which, according to the truth of the said
gospel, is now practiced amongst us." In
the preamble of the Constitution of 1776 it
was declared, "the free fruition of such lib-
erties and privileges as humanity, civility

15

and Christianity call for, as is due to every
man in his place and proportion, without im-
peachment and infringement, hath ever been,
and will be the tranquility and stability of
churches and commonwealths ; and the de-
nial thereof, the disturbance, if not the ruin
of both."

In 1638 the first settlers in Rhode Island
organized a local government by signing the
following agreement :

"We whose names are underwritten do
here solemnly in the presence of Jehovah
incorporate ourselves into a Bodie Politick
and as He shall help, will submit our per-
sons, lives and estates unto our Lord Jesus
Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords
and to all those perfect and most absolute
laws of his given us in his holy word of
truth, to be guided and judged thereby.
Exod. 24 : 3, 4 ; II Chron. it: 3 ; II Kings
11 :i7."

The charter granted to Rhode Island, in
1663, naming the petitioners, speaks of them
as "pursuing, with peaceable and loyal minds,
their sober, serious and religious intentions,
of godly edifying themselves and one an-
other in the holy Christian faith and wor-
ship as they were persuaded; together with
the gaining over and conversion of the poor,
ignorant Indian natives, in these parts of
16

America, to the sincere profession and obedi-
ence of the same faith and worship."

The charter of Carolina, granted in 1663
by Charles II, recites that the petitioners,
"being excited with a laudable and pious zeal
for the propagation of the Christian faith."

In the preface of the frame of government
prepared in 1682 by William Penn, for
Pennsylvania, it is said : 'They weakly err,
that think there is no other use of govern-
ment than correction, which is the coarsest
part of it; daily experience tells us that the
care and regulation of many other affairs,
more soft, and daily necessary, make up
much of the greatest part of government ;
and which must have followed the peopling
of the world, had Adam never fell, and will
continue among men, on earth, under the
highest attainments they may arrive at, by
the coming of the blessed second Adam, the
Lord from heaven." And with the laws
prepared to go with the frame of govern-
ment, it was further provided "that accord-
ing to the good example of the primitive
Christians, and the ease of the creation,
every first day of the week, called the Lord's
Day, people shall abstain from their com-
mon daily labor that they may the better dis-
pose themselves to worship God according
to their understandings."

17

In the charter of privileges granted, in
1 70 1, by William Penn to the province of
Pennsylvania and territories thereunto be-
longing (such territories afterwards con-
stituting the State of Delaware), it is re-
cited : "Because no people can be truly happy,
though under the greatest enjoyment of civil
liberties, if abridged of the freedom of their
consciences as to their religious profession
and worship; and Almighty God being the
only Lord of Conscience, Father of Lights
and Spirits, and the author as well as object
of all divine knowledge, faith and worship,
who only doth enlighten the minds and per-
suade and convince the understandings of
the people, I do hereby grant and declare/'

The Constitution of Vermont, of 1777,
granting the free exercise of religious wor-
ship, added, "Nevertheless, every sect or de-
nomination of people ought to observe the
Sabbath, or the Lord's Day, and keep up and
support some sort of religious worship,
which to them shall seem most agreeable to
the revealed will of God." And this was
repeated in the Constitution of 1786.

In the Constitution of South Carolina, of
1778, it was declared that "the Christian
Protestant religion shall be deemed and is
hereby constituted and declared to be the
established religion of this State." And fur-
18

ther, that no agreement or union of men
upon pretense of religion should be entitled
to become incorporated and regarded as a
church of the established religion of the
State, without agreeing and subscribing to
a book of five articles, the third and fourth
of which were ''that the Christian religion is
the true religion ; that the holy scriptures of
the Old and New Testament are of divine
inspiration, and are the rule of faith and
practice."

Passing beyond these declarations which
are found in the organic instruments of the
colonies, the following are well known his-
torical facts : Lord Baltimore secured the
charter for a Maryland colony in order that
he and his associates might continue their
Catholic worship free from Protestant perse-
cution. Roger Williams, exiled from Massa-
chusetts because of his religious views, estab-
lished an independent colony in Rhode Island.
The Huguenots, driven from France by the
Edict of Nantes, sought in the more southern
colonies a place where they could live in the
enjoyment of their Huguenot faith. It is not
exaggeration to say that Christianity in some
of its creeds was the principal cause of the
settlement of many of the colonies, and co-
operated with business hopes and purposes in
the settlement of the others. Beginning in

19

this way and under these influences it is not
strange that the colonial life had an em-
phatic Christian tone.

From the very first efforts were made,
largely it must be conceded by Catholics, to
bring the Indians under the influence of
Christianity. Who can read without emo-
tion the story of Marquette, and others like
him, enduring all perils and dangers and
toiling through the forests of the west in
their efforts to tell the story of Jesus to the
savages of North America?

Within less than one hundred years from
the landing at Jamestown three colleges were
established in the colonies ; Harvard in Mas-
sachusetts, William and Mary in Virginia
and Yale in Connecticut. The first seal used
by Harvard College had as a motto, "In
Christi Gloriam," and the charter granted
by Massachuetts Bay contained this recital :
"Whereas, through the good hand of God
many well devoted persons have been and
daily are moved and stirred up to give and
bestow sundry gifts . . . that may con-
duce to the education of the English and
Indian youth of this country, in knowledge
and godliness." The charter of William
and Mary, reciting that the proposal was "to
the end that the Church of Virginia may be
furnished with a seminary of ministers of

20

the gospel, and that the youth may be piously
educated in good letters and manners, and
that the Christian faith may be propagated
amongst the western Indians, to the glory
of Almighty God" made the grant "for prop-
agating the pure gospel of Christ, our only
Mediator, to the praise and honor of Al-
mighty God." The charter of Yale declared
as its purpose to fit "young men for public
employment both in church and civil state,"
and it provided that the trustees should be
Congregational ministers living in the col-
ony.

In some of the colonies, particularly in
New England, the support of the church was
a matter of public charge, even as the com-
mon schools are to-day. Thus the Constitu-
tion of Massachusetts, of 1780, Part I, Arti-
cle 3, provided that "the legislature shall,
from time to time, authorize and require, the
several towns, parishes, precincts, and other
bodies politic or religious societies to make
suitable povision at their own expense for
the institution of the public worship of God
and for the support and maintenance of Prot-
estant teachers of piety, religion and moral-
ity in all cases where such provision shall
not be made voluntarily."

Article 6 of the Bill of Rights of the Con-
stitution of New Hampshire, of 1784, re-

21

peated in the Constitution of 1792, empow-
ered "the legislature to authorize from
time to time, the several towns, parishes,
bodies corporate, or religious societies within
this State, to make adequate provision at
their own expense for the support and main-
tenance of public Protestant teachers of
piety, religion and morality." In the fun-
damental Constitutions of 1769, prepared
for the Carolinas, by the celebrated John
Locke, Article 96 reads : "As the country
comes to be sufficiently planted and distrib-
uted into fit divisions, it shall belong to the
parliament to take care for the building of
churches, and the public maintenance of di-
vines to be employed in the exercise of re-
ligion according to the Church of England,
which being the only true and orthodox and
the national religion of all the king's do-
minions, is so also of Carolina, and, there-
fore, it alone shall be allowed to receive pub-
lic maintenance by grant of parliament."

In Maryland, by the Constitution of 1776,
it was provided that "the legislature may, in
their discretion, lay a general and equal tax,
for 'the support of the Christian religion."

In several colonies and states a profession
of the Christian faith was made an indis-
pensable condition to holding office. In the
frame of government for Pennsylvania, pre-
22

\

pared by William Penn, in 1683, it was pro-
vided that "all treasurers, judges . . .
and other officers . . . and all members
elected to serve in provincial council and
general assembly, and all that have right
to elect such members, shall be such as pro-
fess faith in Jesus Christ." And in the char-
ter of privileges for that colony, given in
1 70 1 by William Penn and approved by the
colonial assembly it was provided "that all
persons who also profess to believe in Jesus
Christ, the Saviour of the World, shall be
capable ... to serve this government in
any capacitv, both legislatively and execu-
tively."

In Delaware, by the Constitution of
1776, every officeholder was required to
make and subscribe the following declara-
tion : "I, A. B., do profess faith in God the
Father, and in Jesus Christ His Only Son,
and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for-
evermore; and I do acknowledge the Holy
Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to
be given by divine inspiration."

New Hampshire, in the Constitutions of
1784 and 1792, required that senators and
representatives should be of the "Protestant,
religion," and this provision remained in
force until 1877.

The fundamental Constitutions of the Car-

23

olinas declared : "No man shall be permitted
to be a freeman of Carolina, or to have any
estate or habitation within it that doth not
acknowledge a God, and that God is publicly
and solemnly to be worshiped."

The Constitution of North Carolina, of
1776, provided: "That no person who shall
deny the being of God or the truth of the
Protestant religion, or the divine authority
either of the Old or New Testaments, or
who shall hold religious principles incom-
patible with the freedom and safety of the
State, shall be capable of holding any office
or place of trust or profit in the civil depart-
ment within this State." And this remained
in force until 1835, when it was amended by
changing the word "Protestant" to "Chris-
tian," and as so amended remained in force
until the Constitution of 1868. And in that
Constitution among the persons disqualified
for office were "all persons who shall deny
the being of Almighty God."

New Jersey, by the Constitution of 1776,
declared "that no Protestant inhabitant of
this colony shall be denied the enjoyment of
any civil right merely on account of his re-
ligious principles, but that all persons pro-
fessing a belief in the faith of any Protestant
sect, who shall demean themselves peaceably
under the government as hereby established,
24

shall be capable of being elected into any
office of profit or trust, or being a member of
either branch of the legislature."

The Constitution of South Carolina, of
1776, provided that no person should be eligi-
ble to the Senate or House of Representatives
"unless he be of the Protestant religion."

Massachusetts, in its Constitution of 1780,
required from governor, lieutenant-governor,
councillor, senator and representative before
proceeding to execute the duties of his place
or office a declaration that "I believe the
Christian religion, and have a firm persua-
sion of its truth."

By the fundamental orders of Connecticut
the governor was directed to take an oath to
"further the execution of justice according
to the rule of God's word ; so help me God,
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ."

The Vermont Constitution of 1777 re-
quired of every member of the House of
Representatives that he take this oath : "I do
believe in one God, the creator and governor
of the universe, the rewarder of the good
and punisher of the wicked, and I do ac-
knowledge the scriptures of the Old and
New Testaments to be given by divine in-
spiration, and own and profess the Protest-
ant religion." A similar requirement was
provided by the Constitution of 1786.

25

In Maryland, by the Constitution of 1776,
every person appointed to any office of profit
or trust was not only to take an official
oath of allegiance to the State, but also
to "subscribe a declaration of his belief in
the Christian religion." In the same State,
in the Constitution of 185 1, it was declared
that no other test or qualification for ad-
mission to any office of trust or profit shall
be required than the official oath "and a
declaration of belief in the Christian relig-
ion; and if the party shall profess to be a
Jew the declaration shall be of his belief in
a future state of rewards and punishments."
As late as 1864 the same State in its Consti-
tution had a similar provision, the change
being one merely of phraseology, the provi-
sion reading, "a declaration of belief in the
Christian religion, or of the existence of
God, and in a future state of rewards and
punishments."

Mississippi, by the Constitution of 181 7,
provided that "no person who denies the
being of God or a future state of rewards
and punishments shall hold any office in the
civil department of the State."

Another significant matter is the recogni-
tion of Sunday. That day is the Christian
Sabbath, a day peculiar to that faith, and
known to no other. It would be impossible
26

within the limits of a lecture to point out all
the ways in which that day is recognized.
The following illustrations must suffice : By
the United States Constitution the President
is required to approved all bills passed by
Congress. If he disapproves he returns it
with his veto. And then specifically it is pro-
vided that if not returned by him within ten
days, "Sundays excepted," after it shall have
been presented to him it becomes a law.
Similar provisions are found in the Consti-
tutions of most of the States, and in thirty-
six out of forty-five is the same expression,
"Sundays excepted."

Louisiana is one of the nine States in
whose present Constitution the expression,
"Sundays excepted," is not found. Four
earlier Constitutions of that State (those of
1812, 1845, l %5 2 anc * 1864) contained, while
the three later ones, 1868, 1879 and 1881
omit those words. In State ex rel. vs. Sec-
retary of State, a case arising under the last
Constitution, decided by the Supreme Court
of Louisiana (52 La. An. 936), the question
was presented as to the effect of a governor's
veto which was returned within time if a
Sunday intervening between the day of pre-
sentation of the bill and the return of the
veto was excluded, and too late if it was
included: the burden of the contention on

27

the one side being that the change in the
phraseology of the later Constitutions in
omitting the words "Sundays excepted" in-
dicated a change in the meaning of the con-
stitutional provision in respect to the time
of a veto. The court unanimously held that
the Sunday was to be excluded. In the
course of its opinion it said (p. 944) :

"In law Sundays are generally excluded
as days upon which the performance of any
act demanded by the law is not required.
They are held to be dies non juridici.

"And in the Christian world Sunday is re-
garded as the 'Lord's Day/ and a holiday —
a day of cessation from labor.

"By statute, enacted as far back as
1838, this day is made in Louisiana one of
'public rest.' Rev. Stat., Sec. 522; Code of
Practice, 207, 763.

"This is the policy of the State of long
standing and the framers of the Constitution
are to be considered as intending to con-
form to the same."

By express command of Congress studies
are not pursued at the military or naval
academies, and distilleries are prohibited
from operation on Sundays, while chaplains
are required to hold religious services once
at least on that day.

Bv the English statute of 29 Charles II
28

no tradesman, artificer, workman, laborer,
or other person was permitted to do or ex-
ercise any worldly labor, business or work of
ordinary calling upon the Lord's Day, or
any part thereof, works of necessity or
charity only excepted. That statute, with
some variations, has been adopted by most
if not all the States of the Union, in Mass-
achusetts it was held that one injured while
traveling in the cars on Sunday, except in
case of necessity or charity, was guilty of
contributory negligence and could recover
nothing from the railroad company for the
injury he sustained. And this decision was
affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United
States. A statute of the State of Georgia,
making the running of freight trains on
Sunday a misdemeanor, was also upheld by
that court. By decisions in many States a
contract made on Sunday is invalid and can-
not be enforced. By the general course of
decision no judicial proceedings can be held
on Sunday. All legislative bodies, whether
muncipal, state or national, abstain from
work on that day. Indeed, the vast volume
of official action, legislative and judicial,
recognizes Sunday as a day separate and
apart from the others, a day devoted not to
the ordinary pursuits of life. It is true in
many of the decisions this separation of the

29

day is said to be authorized by the police
power of the State and exercised for pur-
poses of health. At the same time, through
a large majority of them, there runs the
thought of its being a religious day, con-
secrated by the Commandment, "Six days
shalt thou labor, and do all thy work :
but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the
Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not do any
work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter,
thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor
thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within
thy gates."

While the word "God" is not infrequently
used both in the singular and plural to de-
note any supreme being or beings, yet when
used alone and in the singular number it
generally refers to that Supreme Being
spoken of in the Old and New Testaments
and worshiped by Jew and Christian. In
that sense the word is used in constitution,
statute and instrument. In many State Con-
stitutions we find in the preamble a declara-
tion like this : "Grateful to Almighty God."
In some he who denied the being of God was
disqualified from holding office. It is again
and again declared in constitution and
statute that official oaths shall close with an
appeal, "So help me, God." When, upon
inauguration, the President-elect each four

30

years consecrates himself to the great respon-
sibilities of Chief Executive of the republic,
his vow of consecration in the presence of the
vast throng filling the Capitol grounds will
end with the solemn words, "So help me,
God." In all our courts witnesses in like
manner vouch for the truthfulness of their
testimony. The common commencement of
wills is "In the name of God, Amen." Every
foreigner attests his renunciation of allegi-
ance to his former sovereign and his accep-
tance of citizenship in this republic by an
appeal to God.

These various declarations in charters, con-
stitutions and statutes indicate the general
thought and purpose. If it be said that sim-
ilar declarations are not found in all the
charters or in all the constitutions, it will be
borne in mind that the omission oftentimes
was because they were deemed unnecessary,
as shown by the quotation just made from
the opinion of the Supreme Court of Louis-
iana, as well as those hereafter taken from
the opinions of other courts. And further,
it is of still more significance that there
are no contrary declarations. In no char-
ter or constitution is there anything to even
suggest that any other than the Christian
is the religion of his country. In none of
them is Mohammed or Confucius or Buddha

3 1

in any manner noticed. In none of them
is Judaism recognized other than by way
of toleration of its special creed. While
the separation of church and state is often
affirmed, there is nowhere a repudiation of
Christianity as one of the institutions as well
as benedictions of society. In short, there is
no charter or constitution that is either infi-
del, agnostic or anti-Christian. Wlferever
there is a declaration in favor of any religion
it is of the Christian. In view of the multi-
tude of expressions in its favor, the avowed
separation between church and state is a
most satisfactory testimonial that it is the re-
ligion of this country, for a peculiar thought
of Christianity is of a personal relation be-
tween man and his Maker, uncontrolled by
and independent of human government.

Notice also the matter of chaplains. These
are appointed for the army and navy, named
as officials of legislative assemblies, and uni-
versally they belong to one or other of the
Christian denominations. Their whole range
of service, whether in prayer or preaching,
is an official recognition of Christianity. If
it be not so, why do we have chaplains ?

If we consult the decisions of the courts,
although the formal question has seldom
been presented because of a general recogni-
tion of its truth, yet in The People vs. Rug-
32

gles, 8 John. 290, 294, 295, Chancellbx Kent,
the great commentator on American law,
speaking as Chief Justice of the Suprime
Court of New York, said: 'The people of
this State, in common with the people of* this
country, profess the general doctrines of
Christianity, as the rule of their faith and
practice." And in the famous case of VkM
vs. Girard's Executors, 2 How. 127, 198, the
Supreme Court of the United States, while
sustaining the will of Air. Girard, with its
provision for the creation of a college into
which no minister should be permitted to
enter, observed: "It is also said, and truly,
that the Christian religion is a part of the
common law of Pennsylvania."

The New York Supreme Court, in Lin-
denmuller vs. The People, 33 Barbour, 561,
held that :

"Christianity is not the legal religion of
the State, as established by law. If it were,
it would be a civil or political institution,
which it is not; but this is not inconsistent
with the idea that it is in fact, and ever has
been, the religion of the people. This fact
is everywhere prominent in all our civil and
political history^and has been, from the first,
recognized and acted upon by the people, as
well as by constitutional conventions, by leg-
islatures and by courts of justice."
3 33

The 3outh Ca-olina Supreme Court, in
State vs. Chandler, 2 Harrington, 555, cit-
ing many cases, said :

"It appears to have been long perfectly
settled by the common law that blasphemy
against the Deity in general, or a malicious
and wanton attack against the Christian re-
Rg'i'on individually, for the purpose of ex-
posing its doctrines to contempt and ridicule,
is indictable and punishable as a temporal
offense."

And again, in City Council vs. Benjamin,
2 Strobhart, 521 :

"On that day we rest, and to us it is the
Sabbath of the Lord — its decent observance
in a Christian community is that which
ought to be expected.

"It is not perhaps necessary for the pur-
poses of this case to rule and hold that the
Christian religion is part of the common law
of South Carolina. Still it may be useful to
show that it lies at the foundation of even
the article of the Constitution under consid-
eration, and that upon it rest many of the
principles and usages, constantly acknowl-
edged and enforced, in the courts of justice."

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in Up-
degraph vs. The Commonwealth, 11 Ser-
geant and Rawle, 400, made this declara-
tion:

34

"Christianity, general Christianity, is, and
always has been, a part of the common law
of Pennsylvania; Christianity, without the
spiritual artillery of European countries ; for
this Christianity was one of the considera-
tions of the royal charter, and the very basis
of its great founder, William Penn; not
Christianity founded on any particular re-
ligious tenets ; not Christianity with an es-
tablished church, and tithes, and spiritual
courts ; but Christianity with liberty of con-
science to all men."

And subsequently, in Johnson vs. The
Commonwealth, 10 Harris, in.

"It is not our business to discuss the obli-
gations of Sunday any further than they
enter into and are recognized by the law of
the land. The common law adopted it,
along with Christianity, of which it is one
of the bulwarks."

In Arkansas, Shover vs. The State, 10
English, 263, the Supreme Court said :

"Sunday or the Sabbath is properly and
emphatically called the Lord's Day, and is
one amongst the first and most sacred institu-
tions of the Christian religion. This system
of religion is recognized as constituting a
part and parcel of the common law, and as
such all of the institutions growing out of it,
or, in any way, connected with it, in case

35

they shall not be found to interfere with the
rights of conscience, are entitled to the most
profound respect, and can rightfully claim
the protection of the law-making power of
the State."

The Supreme Court of Maryland, in Jude-
find vs. The State, 78* Maryland, 514, de-
clared :

"The Sabbath is emphatically the day of
rest, and the day of rest here is the Lord's
Day or Christian's Sunday. Ours is a Chris-
tian community, and a day set apart as the
day of rest is the day consecrated by the
resurrection of our Saviour, and embraces
the twenty-four hours next ensuing the mid-
night of Saturday. . . . But it would
scarcely be asked of a court, in what pro-
fesses to be a Christian land, to declare a
law unconstitutional because it requires rest
from bodily labor on Sunday (except works
of necessity and charity) and thereby pro-
motes the cause of Christianity."

If now we pass from the domain of official
action and recognition to that of individual
acceptance we enter a field of boundless ex-
tent, and I can only point out a few of the
prominent facts :

Notice our educational institutions. I
have already called your attention to the pro-
visions of the charters of the first three col-

36

leges. Think of the vast number of acad-
emies, colleges and universities scattered
through the land. Some of them, it is true,
are under secular control, but there is yet to
be established in this country one of those
institutions founded on the religions of Con-
fucius, Buddha or Mohammed, while an
overwhelming majority are under the special
direction and control of Christian teachers.

Notice also the avowed and pronounced
Christian forces of the country, and here I
must refer to the census of 1890, for the
statistics of the census of 1900 in these
matters have not been compled : The popu-
lation was 62,622,000. There were 165,000
Christian church organizations, owning
142,000 buildings, in which were sittings for
40,625,000 people. The communicants in
these churches numbered 20,476,000, and the
value of the church property amounted to
$669,876,000. In other words, about one-
third of the entire population were directly
connected with Christian organizations.
Nearly two-thirds would find seats in our
churches. If to the members we add the chil-
dren and others in their families more or less
connected with them, it is obvious that a
large majority were attached to the various
church organizations. I am aware that the
relationship between many members and

37

their churches is formal, and that church re-
lations do not constitute active and para-
mount forces in their lives, and yet it is clear
that there is an identification of the great
mass of American citizens with the Christian
church. It is undoubtedly true that there
is no little complaint of the falling off in
church attendance, and of a lukewarmness
on the part of many, and on the other hand
there is a diversion of religious force along
the lines of the Young Men's Christian As-
sociation, the Christian Endeavor Society
and the Epworth League. All these, of
course, are matters to be noticed, but they do
not avoid the fact of a formal adhesion of
the great majority of our people to the
Christian faith; and while creeds and dog-
mas and denominations are in a certain sense
losing their power, and certainly their an-
tagonisms, yet as a vital force in the land,
Christianity is still the mighty factor. Con-
nected with the denominations are large mis-
sionary bodies constantly busy in extend-
ing Christian faith through this nation and
through the world. No other religious or-
ganization has anything of a foothold or is
engaged in active work unless it be upon so
small a scale as scarcely to be noticed in the
great volume of American life.

Again, the Bible is the Christian's book.

38

No other book has so wide a circulation, or
is so universally found in the households of
the land. During their century of exist-
ence the English and American Bible Socie-
ties have published and circulated two hun-
dred and fifty million copies, and this repre-
sents but a fraction of its circulation. And
then think of the multitude of volumes
published in exposition, explanation and il-
lustration of that book, or some portion
of it.

You will have noticed that I have presented
no doubtful facts. Nothing has been stated
which is debatable. The quotations from
charters are in the archives of the several
States ; the laws are on the statute books ;
judicial opinions are taken from the official
reports ; statistics from the census publica-
tions. In short, no evidence has been pre-
sented which is open to question.

I could easily enter upon another line of
examination. I could point out the general
trend of public opinion, the disclosures of
purposes and beliefs to be found in letters,
papers, books and unofficial declarations. I
could show how largely our laws and cus-
toms are based upon the laws of Moses and
the teachings of Christ; how constantly the
Bible is appealed to as the guide of life and
the authority in questions of morals : how the

39

Christian doctrines are accepted as the great
comfort in times of sorrow and affliction,
and fill with the light of hope the services for
the dead. On every hilltop towers the steeple
of some Christian church, while from the
marble witnesses in God's acre comes the
universal but silent testimony to the com-
mon faith in the Christian doctrine of the
resurrection and the life hereafter.

But I must not weary you. I could go on
indefinitely, pointing out further illustra-
tions both official and non-official, public and
private; such as the annual Thanksgiving
proclamations, with their following days of
worship and feasting; announcements of
days of fasting and prayer; the universal
celebration of Christmas; the gathering of
millions of our children in Sunday Schools,
and the countless volumes of Christian liter-
ature, both prose and poetry. But I have
said enough to show that Christianity came
to this country with the first colonists; has
been powerfully identified with its rapid de-
velopment, colonial and national, and to-day
exists as a mighty factor in the life of the
republic. This is a Christian nation, and we
can all rejoice as truthfully we repeat the
words of Leonard Bacon :

"O God, beneath thy guiding hand
Our exiled fathers crossed the sea,
40

4

And when they trod the wintry strand,
With prayer and psalm they worshiped
Thee.

"Thou heardst, well pleased, the song, the
prayer —

Thy blessing came ; and still its power
Shall onward through all ages bear

The memory of that holy hour.

"Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God
Came with those exiles o'er the waves,

And where their pilgrim feet have trod,
The God they trusted guards their graves.

"And here Thy name, O God of love,
Their children's children shall adore,

Till these eternal hills remove,

And spring adorns the earth no more. ,,

43

II. OUR DUTY AS CITIZENS

OUR DUTY AS CITIZENS

I

CONSIDERED last night the
proposition that the United
States of America is a Chris-
tian nation. I pointed out that
Christianity was a primary
cause of the first settlement on
our shores; that the organic instruments,
charters and constitutions of the colonies
were filled with abundant recognitions of
it as a controlling factor in the life of
the people; that in one at least of them
it was in terms declared the established
religion, while in several the furthering
of Christianity was stated to be one of
the purposes of the government; in many
faith in it was a condition of holding office ;
in some, authority was given to the legisla-
ture to make its support a public charge ; in
nearly all the constitutions there has been
an express recognition of the sanctity of the
Christian Sunday; the God of the Bible is
appealed to again and again. Sunday laws

45

have been enacted and enforced in most of
the colonies and States. About one-third of
the population are avowedly Christian and
communicants in some Christian organiza-
tion; there are sitting accommodations in
the churches for nearly two-thirds; educa-
tional institutions are largely under the con-
trol of Christian denominations, and even in
those which, in obedience to the rule of sep-
aration between church and state, are secular
in their organization, the principles of Chris-
tianity are uniformly recognized. By these
and other evidences I claim to have
shown that the calling of this republic a
Christian nation is not a mere pretence but
a recognition of an historical, legal and
social truth.

I come this evening to consider the conse-
quences of this fact and the duties it imposes
upon all our citizens.

And first let it be noticed that there is no
incompatibility between Christianity and
patriotism. The declaration of the Master,
"Render therefore unto Caesar, the things
which are Caesar's ; and unto God, the things
that are God's," is not a declaration of an-
tagonism between the two, but an affirma-
tion of duty to each. Indeed, devotion to
one generally goes hand in hand with loyalty
to the other. When Havelock, the hero of

4 6

Lucknow, died, most appropriate were the
words of the English poet :

"Strew not on the hero's hearse
Garlands of a herald's verse:
Let us hear no words of Fame
Sounding loud a deathless name :
Tell us of no vauntful Glory
Shouting forth her haughty story.
All life long his homage rose
To far other shrine than those.
Tn hoc signo,' pale nor dim,
Lit the battlefield for him,
And the prize he sought and won,
Was the crown for duty done."

But we need not go elsewhere. In our
own land, from the very first, Christianity
and patriotism have worked together. When
the Pilgrim Fathers touched New England's
shores their first service was one of thanks-
giving and praise to that Infinite One who
had, as they believed, guided them to their
new home. In the long struggles of the
early colonists with their Indian foes, the
building on the hill was both church and
fort. They fell on their knees and then on
the aboriginees, was the old satire, to which
now is added, they fall on the Chinese. In

47

the convention that framed the Constitution,
when doubt and uncertainty hovered over
the result, at Franklin's instance prayer was
offered for the success of their efforts. In
the dark days at Valley Forge the great
leader sought strength and inspiration in
prayer. When the nation stood aghast at
the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the
clarion voice of Garfield rang out above the
darkness and the tumult, "God reigns, and
the government at Washington still lives."
And so I might go on with illustration after
illustration showing how the faith of the
Christian has stood in times of trial and
trouble as the rock upon which the nation
has rested.

Again, Christianity is entitled to the trib-
ute of respect. I do not of course mean that
all individuals, nominally Christian, deserve
trust, confidence, or even respect, for the
contrary is too often the case. Too often
men hold religion as they do property, in
their wives' names. Nor is Christianity be-
yond the reach of criticism and opposition.
It is not lifted up as something too sacred to
be spoken of save in terms and tones of
reverence. This is an iconoclastic and scien-
tific age. We are destroying many beliefs
and traditions. William Tell is a myth. The
long hairs of Pocahontas never dropped in

48

protecting folds over the body of John
Smith. The Arabs never destroyed the great
library at Alexandria, though if some wan-
dering Arabs would destroy all the law books
in the land they would bless the courts and
help the cause of justice. We challenge the
truthfulness of every assertion of fact, every
demand upon our faith and confidence ; and
Christianity must stand like all other insti-
tutions, to be challenged, criticised, weighed
and its merits and demerits determined. The
time has passed in the history of the world
when anything is too sacred to be touched,
when anything is beyond the reach of the
inquiring and scientific spear. But while
conceding all this I insist that Christianity
has been so wrought into the history of this
republic, so identified with its growth and
prosperity, has been and is so dear to the
hearts of the great body of our citizens, that
it ought not to be spoken of contemptuously
or treated with ridicule. Religion of any
form is a sacred matter. It involves the re-
lation of the individual to some Being be-
lieved to be infinitely supreme. It involves
not merely character and life here, but des-
tiny hereafter, and as such is not to be
spoken of lightly or flippantly. And we who
are citizens of this republic — recognizing the
identification of Christianity with its life,
4 49

the general belief that Christianity is the
best of all religions, that it passed into the
lives of our fathers and is taken into the lives
of our brethren as something of sacred
power — ought, even if not agreeing with all
that is claimed for it, to at least accord to
it respect.

I once listened to a conversation which
illustrates my thought. It was between two
young men returning after the close of a
summer's vacation to the college at which
both were students. The principal talker
was, as I discovered in the course of the
afternoon, an only son. On his upper lip
was the first dark shadow of a coining mus-
tache. He possessed that peculiar wisdom
which belongs in this world to only the col-
lege sophomore. He was expressing to his
companion his views on the Bible and relig-
ion, said he knew too much to believe in
either; admitted that his mother believed in
both and read her Bible every day ; said that
that might do for women and children, but
not for any intelligent man in the light of
present scientific knowledge. You would
have thought that Darwin and Huxley and
Lord Kelvin had studied at his feet and that
he was the Gamaliel of the present day. It
is impossible to reproduce in language the
self-sufficient sneering tone in which he
50

spoke of the Bible, classing it with nursery
rhymes, the story of Jack and the Beanstalk
and the like, and the complacent pity with
which he referred to those who were foolish
enough to regard it as a sacred book. It is
to be hoped that the budding sophomore
lived long enough to learn that no gentleman
speaks sneeringly of that which has been the
life-long faith and comfort of his mother.

From the standpoint of citizenship the
treatment of Christianity may be regarded
as in some respects similar to that which is
accorded and is due to the national flag.
Who looks upon that as a mere piece of
cloth costing but a trifle, something to be de-
rided or trampled upon at will? A particu-
lar banner may not have cost much. It may
be cheap to him who sees only the mate-
rial and work which have passed into it,
but to every patriot it is the symbol of
patriotism. Its history is a record of glory.
A century ago the Barbary pirates, who had
defied the flags of Europe, saw it waving
over Decatur's vessels and bowed in submis-
sion. Commodore Perry sailed beneath it
into the unknown harbors of Japan, opened
that nation to the nineteenth century, and
to-day her civilization and power command
universal respect and admiration. The op-
pressed Cuban appealed to it for deliverance,

51

and in response thereto Manila and Santiago
de Cuba introduced a new sister into the
family of nations.

' 'Wherever man has dared to go,
'Mid tropic heat or polar snow,
On sandy plain or lofty crag,
Has waved our country's starry flag.
In that far North where ceaseless cold
Has built its alabaster hold,
And where the sun disdains to show
His brightness on unbroken snow,
Where icy pillars tower to heaven
Pale sentinels to nature given,
To watch the only spot she can
Withhold from grasping hand of man,
There Kane unfurled this banner bright,
Resplendent with auroral light."

To-day it waves at the masthead of Amer-
ican vessels in every water of the globe, and
commands the world's respect. An insult
to it every citizen feels is an insult to him-
self, and all insist that it shall be accorded
due respect. We remember how, in the early
days of our great civil struggle, the loyal
heart was stirred with the thrilling words of
Secretary Dix, "If any man attempts to haul
down the American flag, shoot him on the
spot." We honor Stonewall Jackson, who,
52

seeing Barbara Frietchie waving this ban-
ner from the window of her home in Fred-
erick, and the threatening guns of his sol-
diers, called out :

" 'Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog. March on;' he said."

We rejoice that now it floats in peace and
triumph over all our fair land. We love to
watch its fold swing out to the breeze on
every patriotic day, to see it decorate the
walls where gather our great conventions.
We glory in every tribute that is paid to it
in any part of the globe. It tells the story
of conflicts, of defeats and victories. It has
waved over many a field of battle, and the
blood of our noblest and best has been shed
in its defense. It is eloquent of all the suf-
ferings and trials of days gone by, of all the
great achievements of the American people,
and as we swing it to the breeze we do so
with undoubting faith that it will wave over
grander things in the future of this republic.

Christianity has entered into and become
part of the life of this republic; it came with
its beginnings and prompted them ; has been
identified with its toils and trials, shared in
its victories, cheered in the hour of darkness
and gloom, and stands to-day prophetic of

53

untold blessings in the future. And shall it
be said that it alone of all our benedictions
has forfeited a claim to receive from every
American citizen the tribute of respect?

Respect for Christianity implies respect-
ful treatment of its institutions and ordi-
nances. This does not require that every
one must conform his life to those institu-
tions and ordinances. That is something
which each one has a right to settle for him-
self. Take, for instance, the matter of
church services. No one is in duty bound
as a citizen to attend a particular church
service, or indeed any church service. The
freedom of conscience, the liberty of the
individual, gives to every individual the
right to attend or stay away. At the same
time there is an obligation not to unneces-
sarily interfere with or disturb those serv-
ices. This is something more than the duty
which rests upon one attending those serv-
ices to avoid the ungentlemanly and unseemly
act of disturbing the exercises. That is only
a part of the common courtesy of all going
into a gathering assembled for any lawful
purpose. They who call the meeting and
who are engaged in service of any legiti-
mate character have a right to be free from
annoyance and interference. But beyond
that the citizen who does not attend, does
54

not even share in the belief of those who do,
ought ever to bear in mind the noble part
Christianity has taken in the history of the
republic, the great share it has had in her
wonderful development and its contribution
to her present glory, and by reason thereof
take pains to secure to those who do believe
in it and do attend its services freedom from
all disturbance of their peaceful gathering.
The American Christian is entitled to his
quiet hour.

Take another illustration, — Sunday. Its
separation from the other days as a day of
rest is enforced by the legislation of nearly
all if not all the States of the Union. Beyond
that it is to the Christian a sacred day. It
does not follow that it is the duty of every
individual to observe the Sabbath as Chris-
tians do. Indeed, there is no unanimity of
view among the latter as to the manner in
which it should be observed. We have gone
far away from the Puritan Sabbath and the
austere, severe observance of it which pre-
vailed in the early days of New England
colonies, and which made the day a terror
to children as well as burdensome to adults.
I believe it is conceded that notwithstand-
ing the fabled blue laws of New England, a
man may without impropriety kiss his wife
on Sunday and possibly if he have a chance

55

some other sweet-faced woman. That old-
time terror has been superceded by gentler
and kindlier modes of observance, which
tend to make the day welcome to all, both
young and old, one in which is not merely
rest from the ordinary toils of the
week, but one in which the companion-
ship of friends, the sweet influences of
nature, and lessons from the higher forms
of music and other arts are recognized as
among its benedictions. While the latter
modes, though very likely more helpful,
more really Christian, are a great departure
from the former, yet it still remains true that
it is a day consecrated of old, a day sepa-
rated by law and religion as well as by the
custom of the church for ages, and ought
not to be turned into a day of public frivolity
and gayety. While it may be true that all
are not under obligations to conform to the
higher and better uses of the day, yet at least
they owe that respect to Christianity to pur-
sue their frivolities and gaieties in such a
way as not to offend those who believe in
its sacredness. I recognize the fact that it is
not always easy to draw the line and that
freedom implies not merely the freedom of
those who would keep the day sacred, but
also the freedom of those who do not so re-
gard it.

56

Again, it deserves the attention and study
of every citizen. You are all patriots, you
love your country, are proud of its past and
mean to so live and act that you can help it
to the best possible future. Now, as I have
pointed out, Christianity was a. principal
cause of the settlements on these western
shores. It has been identified with the
growth and development of those settle-
ments into the United States of America,
has so largely shaped and molded it that to-
day of all the nations in the world it is the
most justly called a Christian nation. In
order to determine what we ought to do for
the future of the republic we must review
its history, inquire into the causes which
have made its growth and influenced its
life, ascertained which have been the most
controlling and which have helped on the
better side of its development, and why
they have been so influential. I have
shown that Christianity has been a great
factor, and the student of our history will
find that it has been a helpful and uplift-
ing factor. Making full allowance for all
the imperfections and mistakes which have
attended it, as they attend all human insti-
tutions, I am sure that the student will be
convinced that its general influence upon
our national life has been for the better.

57

It has always stood for purity of the home,
and who doubts that our homes have been
the centers of the holiest living. It is Mor-
monism, Mohammedanism and heathenism
and not Christianity which have proclaimed
polygamy and debased woman from the
sacred place of wife to the lower level of
concubine. It is not Christianity which has
sustained the social evil. All through our
history, colonial and national, the hope and
ambition of every young man and woman
have been for a home of their own, into
which one husband and one wife shall enter,
"and they twain shall be one flesh." One of
the sad features of city life to-day is the
crowding into apartments, where the janitor
is master of the house and the independence
of the home life is only partially secured.
The barracks around our great manufactur-
ing establishments are freighted with equally
sad significance. While admitting this tem-
porary departure we rejoice that this has
been pre-eminently a land of homes, whether
in the city, or village, or country. And the
power which has ever stood in the land for
the purity of home life has been a crown of
glory to the republic.

It has stood for business honesty and in-
tegrity. Its proclamation has been the
golden rule. Do unto others as you would

58

they should do unto you, is a summons
to honesty and fair dealing in all business
as well as other relations in life. The
Master never suggested that ability to keep
outside the penitentiary was a sufficient test
of honesty.

It has stood for liberty and the rights of
man. In the great revolutionary struggle
the trusted counselors of the people were the
preachers. While they may not be known
in history as the leaders, were not the law-
yers to draft the statutes and the constitu-
tion, nor the military heroes to command the
armies, yet the local centers of influence
were the Christian churches, and the Chris-
tian preachers were the men who kept the
mass of the people loyal to the leadership of
Washington and his associates. And in the
later struggle for human liberty Christianity
was always on the advance line. Those of
us who remember the ante-bellum days re-
call the bitter flings that were made against
preachers in politics. That was signifi-
cant of the recognized truth that they were
leading the great mass of the loyal people
on in that most wonderful civil war of all
the ages. That struggle, as every one
knows, commenced on the plains of Kansas,
and the New England emigrant crossed
those plains, singing the song of Whittier :

59

"We go to plant our common schools
On distant prairie swells,
And give the Sabbaths of the wild
The music of her bells.

"Upbearing like the ark of old,
The Bible in our van,
We go to test the truth of God
Against the fraud of man."

And all during the terrible days of the
great war, from every Union camp and com-
pany rolled up the majestic music of the
battle hymn of the republic :

"In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born

across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom that transfigures

you and me :
As he died to make men holy, let us die to

make men free,
While God is marching on."

It has stood for education. I have already
called your attention to this matter in proof
of the Christian character of the nation. It
may be added that outside of the institutions
with direct State support nearly every acad-
emy, college and university was founded by
and is under the control of some one of the
60

several Christian denominations. Indeed, a
frequent criticism of many is that they are
too much under such control. Certain is it
that they would never have come into being
but for the denominations back of them.
Up to a recent date the rule was that the
presidents and an exceedingly large major-
ity of the faculty of all these institutions
be ministers. It was a national surprise
when first a layman was elected a college
president. In the common schools the Bible
has been as much a text-book as the New
England primer. It is only within very late
years that any objection has been raised to
its daily use, and that objection has sprung
as much from differences between the Cath-
olic and Protestant denominations concern-
ing the version to be used as from opposi-
tion to the book itself.

It has stood for the great charities and
benevolences of the land. What single or-
ganization has done more for the orphan
than the Catholic Church? What one,
through hospital and asylum, more for the
sick and afflicted? If you were to select a
single face and form as the typical expres-
sion of the great thought of charity and
kindness, whose would you select other than
the face and form of a Sister of Charity?

61

"The Little Sister of the Poor.

"Amid the city's dust and din
Your patient feet have trod ;
Wherever sorrow is or sin
You do the work of God.

"You seem in many a shadowed place
A glory from above,
The peace of heaven is in your face,
And in your heart is love.

"Your brow is lined with other's cares,
And aches for others' needs ;
You bless the dying with your prayers,
The living with your deeds.

"You sow the wayside hope that lives
Where else were only death ;
Your love is like the rain that gives
Heaven's secret to the earth.

"The pitying thoughts that fill your eyes,
And rob your years of rest,
That lead you still where misery sighs
And life is all unblest,

"Are as the tears that angels shed
O'er darkened lives forlorn —
Stars in the gloom till night has fled,
And dew on earth at morn."
62

In times when epidemics rage, when death
seems to haunt every city home, who are the
devoted ones to risk their lives in caring for
the sick and paying the last offices to the
dead? Surely as the vision of this rises in
your mind you see the presence and form
of those whose faith is in the Man of Galilee.

It has stood for peace. I need not content
myself by referring to that Christian denom-
ination, one of whose distinguishing tenets
is unqualified opposition to all wars. I can
with safety point to the great body of those
who in days gone by have been the cham-
pions of the cause of peace ; to the memorials
which have been presented to the two Houses
of Congress in favor of arbitration ; to those
who are at the head of the various peace
societies, and who are always found upon
the platforms at their gatherings, and whose
voices are most constant and potent in its
behalf. Indeed, strike from the history of
this country all that the Christian Church
has done in the interest and to further the
cause of peace and there is not as much life
left as was found in the barren fig tree.

It has stood for temperance. Not that it
has stood alone, but it has been a leader.
The foremost advocates of the cause have
been pronounced Christians. Frances Wil-
lard was president of the Woman's Chris-

63

tian Temperance Union, not of the Woman's
Mohammedan Temperance Union, and the
White Ribboners are not disciples of Con-
fucius or Buddha. The churches have been
the places of the great gatherings of the
friends of temperance. Indeed, when you
survey the efforts made to further that cause
you will find that running through them all
Christianity has been distinctively present.

In short, it has sought to write into the
history of this nation the glowing words of
the apostle:

"Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle-
ness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance;
against such there is no law."

It has stood for all these things because
they represent its thought and purpose. So
he who studies the history of the country,
finding this to be the lesson of its influence
upon our history, can but be led to the con-
clusion not merely that it has been a potent
factor in the life of the nation, but also that
it has been a healthful and helpful factor.
When one who loves his country realizes
this fact, does there not open before him
a clear vision of his duty to further its influ-
ence. If in the past it has done so much
and so well for the country is there any
reason to doubt that strengthened and ex-
tended it will continue the same healthful

6 4

and helpful influence? It has been often
said that Christian nations are the civilized
nations, and as often that the most thor-
oughly Christian are the most highly civil-
ized. Is this a mere coincidence? Study
well the history of Christianity in its rela-
tion to the nation and it will be found that
it is something more than a mere coinci-
dence, that there is between the two the
relation of cause and effect, and that the
more thoroughly the principles of Christian-
ity reach into and influence the life of the
nation the more certainly will that nation
advance in civilization. At least it is the
duty of every patriot, finding that it has been
such a factor in our life, to inquire whether
it does stand to its civilization in the rela-
tion of cause and effect, and it would be in
the highest degree unphilosophical to assume
that there has been only a coincidence, and
therefore that its presence in the nation is a
matter of indifference.

If found that it has been both a potent
and helpful factor in the development of our
a helpful factor in the development of our
civilization, then it is a patriot's duty to up-
hold it and extend its influence. This is in
line with the general obligation which rests
upon all to help everything which tends to
the bettering of the life of the republic.

6 5

Who does not recognize that obligation in
other directions?

To-day a, prevalent belief is that in order
to maintain our position in the world, a posi-
tion which has rapidly changed from one of
isolation to that of intimate relation with all
nations, we ought to pay larger attention to
our navy. If that belief is well founded, if
it be true that a larger and more efficient
navy is essential to the maintenance of our
position in the world, then who will question
the duty of every citizen? May we antag-
onize that which the nation's interests de-
mand? Shall we through selfishness or in-
difference permit that which means the well-
being and glory of the nation to become
weak or to fail altogether? Who hesitates
about the answer to such a question? So
with our commerce. Is it not praiseworthy
effort on the part of each and all to enlarge
that commerce and thus to add to the pros-
perity which attends a successful world com-
merce ?

Or to come closer to those things which
touch the social and moral well-being of the
nation, who doubts a patriot's duty to fur-
ther the cause of education ? Who questions
that the best interests of the republic are
prompted by extending education to all?
And can any one, doing justice to himself,
66

and without violating his duty to the repub-
lic, plead that he is wholly indifferent to the
matter? Take another illustration— civil
service reform. I shall not enter into any
argument in its favor. I assume that the
principle of it commends itself to the
thoughtful as something which, wisely ad-
ministered, will eliminate much of the pitiful
scramble for office and secure a better ad-
ministration of public affairs. Upon that
assumption who does not feel that he has a
duty in so far as in him lies to further the
movement in its favor? It may be that it
has not yet accomplished that which its
friends believe it possible of accomplishing;
that much is to be done before it is placed
upon a permanent and efficient basis. And
yet if it be something which in its develop-
ment will redound to the national well-being
is there not a duty resting upon all to
strengthen and perfect it?

Now these are mere illustrations of the
duty which, as patriotic citizens, we all feel
in reference to those measures which tend
to promote the well-being of the republic.
Upon what grounds may we recognize our
obligations in these directions and decline
to do anything to extend and make more
efficient the principles of Christianity? I
am not now presenting this as a question

67

affecting the life hereafter. I am putting it
before you simply as a citizen's duty; as a
matter affecting only the well-being and
glory of the republic. You may concede
that, as illustrated by the lives of its pro-
fessed followers, Christianity comes far short
of what you think it ought to be, and yet if
you believe that its spirit and principles are
freighted with blessing to the individual as
well as to the nation, is it not an obvious
duty to seek to purify it in the individual
and strengthen it in the nation ? The selfish
spirit is not a commendable element in the
life of a true citizen. It is as old as scrip-
ture that no man liveth unto himself alone,
and in the marvelously and increasingly in-
timate relations of individuals one to the
other and the growing power of the citizen
over the life of the nation, the unselfish pa-
triot must always consider not simply his
own interests, his own comfort and conven-
ience, but those things which make for the
well-being of all.

The significance of this duty has another
aspect. No man liveth unto himself alone,
may be broadened into, no nation liveth unto
itself alone. Neighbor is no longer confined
to the vocabulary of the individual. It is a
national word. Modern inventions have an-
nihilated distance. Commercial relations
68

have broken down barriers of race and relig-
ion, and the family of nations is a recog-
nized fact. This republic has joined in the
movement of the age. She no longer lives
an isolated life separated by the oceans from
the great powers of the world. She sits in
the councils of the nations and we rejoice
to speak of her and hear her spoken of as a
world power. Indeed, some begin to think
ambitiously of this republic as a sort of in-
ternational policeman, with the right to ex-
ercise all the functions of a policeman in pre-
serving order and keeping peace. The Mon-
roe Doctrine is to be extended. Xo longer
simply a prohibition upon further European
colonies, but a declaration that if any Euro-
pean power claims anything from any nation
on this hemisphere it must appeal to the
United States and not attempt to assert by
force its claims. We propose to administer
the estate of San Domingo, even before its
death. We intend to preserve the integrity
of China. We intimated to Russia that the
Jews must no longer be persecuted. We are
disposed to say to Turkey that Armenian
life and property must be safe, and we hear,
as the Apostle of old, the cry, "Come over
into Macedonia and help us." I do not stop
to discuss whether we are not overdoing in
this direction; whether it is wise wholly to

69

forget Washington's farewell advice to avoid
entangling alliances with other nations.
Neither shall I attempt to criticize the re-
cently announced maxim of national duty,
"speak softly, but carry a big stick." But of
one thing I am sure. In no other way can
this republic become a world power in the
noblest sense of the word than by putting
into her life and the lives of her citizens the
spirit and principles of the great founder of
Christianity. We have faith in the future
of the United States. We believe she will
advance in many directions. She may in-
crease her territory, add to her population,
her commerce may grow larger, her accu-
mulations in wealth surpass the wildest
dreams of the Pilgrim Fathers, her inventive
skill subject all the forces of nature to do
her bidding and surround every home with
comforts and luxuries unknown even to the
present day. Besides her statues and paint-
ings the chiseled beauties of Phidias and the
pictured splendors of Raphael may seem the
works of tyros, her literature may dwarf all
the achievements of the writers and thinkers
of ages past and thus she may tower in
greatness in the sight of the world. But
grander far, and far more potential over the
nations will she be when the beatitudes be-
come the magna charta of her life and her
70

citizens live in full obedience to the Golden
Rule. Then, and not until then, will all
nations and their peoples join rejoicingly
with our citizens in this triumphal song to
the great republic :

"Thou, too, sail on, oh Ship of State!
Sail on, oh, Union, strong and great !
Humanity with all its fears.
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!
We know what Master laid thy keel,
What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel,
Who made each mast, and sail, and rope,
What anvils rang, what hammers beat,
In what a forge and what a heat
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope !
Fear not each sudden sound and shock,
'Tis of the wave and not the rock;
'Tis but the flapping of the sail.
And not a rent made by the gale!
In spite of rock and tempest's roar,
In spite of false lights on the shore,
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea !
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,
Are all with thee, — are all with thee!"

71

III. THE PROMISE AND
POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE

THE PROMISE AND POSSIBIL
ITIES OF THE FUTURE

§

AXD now, what of the future? If
Christianity has been so largely
identified with the life of this
nation and identified in a help-
ful and blessing way, what
promise and possibilities does
it bring of the future? Of course what-
ever tends to the better life of the individ-
ual, helps to promote the welfare of the
nation. Anything that conduces to per-
sonal purity, morality and integrity, in-
creases the same characteristics in the com-
munity. It needs no declaration of scrip-
ture to convince that "righteousness exalteth
a nation; but sin is a reproach to any peo-
ple." In so far, therefore, as the principles
and precepts of Christianity develop right-
eousness in the individual, to the same ex-
tent will a similar result be found in the life
of the nation. This subject in its general
features opens the door to extended discus-

75

sion and is susceptible of many illustrations.
The contrast between the standard of life in
a heathen and that in a Christian nation
shows the range of examination into which
we may enter.

Out of the wide field of illustration, let me
call your attention to one or two matters in
which the Christian character of this repub-
lic shines out with richest promise. One
arises from the fact that this nation is com-
posed of people of various races and not
wholly or even substantially of one. We
all have read the story of the dispersion at
Babel. That story may not be the narration
of an actual experience, yet it is a correct
foreshadowing of the world's history. In
whatsoever way it commenced, through all
the ages the inhabitants of the globe have
been gathered in separate localities, each race
or tribe occupying its own locality. The
history of the world is one long story of
strife between nation and nation, tribe and
tribe, race and race. And everywhere to-
day, except here, we find within the territory
of a nation one race alone, or so nearly
alone, that it is supremely dominant. You
go to Germany and the Germans are there,
forming the substantial controlling part of
the population. There may be a few for-
eigners engaged in business or travel, some

76

may even make it their home, but it is a
German nation pure and simple, and the
other races have no place in its life. In
France, Russia, Turkey, it is the same. But
in this republic it is different, and no race
monopolizes American life. The dispersion
at Babel has ended on the banks of the Mis-
sissippi. And the races that once separated
and have continued separate and antagonis-
tic for untold centuries are mingling here
in a common life.

While all doubtless have in a general way
some notion of the many foreigners in our
midst, few realize the extent to which this
nation is made up of different races. Let
me give a few figures taken from the census
of 1900. The total population was 76,000,-
000, of which 67,000,000 were white, and
9,000,000 colored. That is one race, 9,000,-
000, out of the 76,000,000. Of the white
population there were of native parentage
41,000,000, of foreign, 26,000,000. Of the
latter, 10,000,000 were also of foreign birth;
and when you speak of foreign parentage
you must remember that almost all of us,
going back two or three generations, will
find foreign ancestors. Of the 26,000,000
of foreign parentage there were (counting
by hundreds of thousands) from Austria,
400,000; Bohemia, 400,000; Canada, 2,100,-

77

ooo; Denmark, 300,000; England, 2,100,-
000; France, 300,000; Italy, 700,000; Ger-
many, 7,800,000; Hungary, 200,000; Ire-
land, 5,000,000; Norway, 800,000; Poland,
700,000; Russia, 700,000; Scotland, 600,-
000; Sweden, 1,100,000; Switzerland, 300,-
000; Wales, 200,000; other nations, 1,100,-
000, and of mixed parentage, 1,300,000.

This multitude is here, not as travelers,
not with a view of temporary sojourn, but
to make this their home. They are invited
under our law to become and they do be-
come citizens, sharing with us the duties and
responsibilities of citizenship, so that we
have gathered as members of our nation
hundreds of thousands from almost every
race on the face of the globe. They come,
bringing with them that antagonism of race
which has continued for centuries. The old
quarrels are not forgotten. They bring with
them differences in habits and thoughts, in
political hopes and convictions, differences
of religious faith, and in many instances a
lack of any faith. They come and are
merged into the life of this nation, and are,
as you and I, to make its destiny. They
form part of the forces which are to shape
the future of this country. Some think, or
say they think, that there is no such thing
as an overruling Providence, that we are

78

mere atoms of matter tossed to and fro on
the face of the earth, and that here is the
beginning and the end. They do not take
into thought the great life of the ages, or
measure its movements from its first feeble
steps ; and yet they sometimes feel compelled
to admit that it seems as though there were
something more than mere blind chance. I
remember that Speaker Reed once said in a
public address (I am not quoting his exact
words) that while he himself was not much
of a believer in special providences, it did
seem as though these things — referring to
some of the great events of history — were
brought about by an intelligent and infinite
Being. You may fancy that the mingling of
all these races in this country is a mere acci-
dent ; that it simply happened so. And yet if
you will reflect a little you will be led to the
conclusion that, as Tennyson writes :

"Through the ages one increasing purpose
runs."

Four centuries ago the nations in the then
known world were living their isolated and
separate lives. Racial antagonism was per-
sistent. There was little intercourse be-
tween them. Education was practically un-
known. There were a few learned men here
and there. The common people were crushed

79

to earth. Religion, the religion of Christ,
was largely buried beneath a mass of super-
stitions. The Bible was a chained book.
The world was creeping on through the
darkness of the Middle Ages, and the morn-
ing seemed away off in the distance. Then
Gutenberg invented printing. Luther said
the Bible must be an open book. The masses
began to read and dream of liberty. Colum-
bus declared that there was a land away to
to the west, he journeyed in little caravels
across the ocean, and America was discov-
ered. To the temperate part of this western
continent came the Huguenot from France,
the Pilgrim from England, the persecuted
from different lands, and settled along the
Atlantic shore. Religion was a potent fac-
tor in the settlement of these colonies. Now
is it not strange that by mere chance, print-
ing, a free Bible, an unoccupied country, and
an absorbing desire for greater liberty should
come about the same time, and that as the
outcome of this coincidence there should set-
tle upon the virgin soil of this new conti-
nent colonies escaping from persecution and
bringing here education, liberty and relig-
ion ? And then is it not singular that to this
new continent there should come through
the years that followed, from every race on
the face of the globe, a multitude seeking a
80

new home, settling beneath the Stars and
Stripes, feeling that in some way or other
this was the place where the great destinies
of the future were to be wrought out? Is
this all accidental ? Does it not suggest that
in the councils of eternity, long before man
began to be, it was planned that here in this
republic should be worked out the unity of
the race — a unity made possible by the influ-
ences of education and the power of Chris-
tianity? Certainly, to me it is a supreme
conviction, growing stronger and stronger
as the years go by, that this is one purpose
of Providence in the life of this republic,
and that to this end we are to take from
every race its strongest and best elements
and characteristics, and mold and fuse them
into one homeogeneous American life.

Some of you know something about com-
posite photography, and how face after face
is thrown upon the same plate until a picture
is produced which is a representation of
thirty or forty faces, one upon another. As
you look at this composite picture you see
that the marked and strong characteristics
of each face are visible, while the weak ones
are lost. America is the great national pho-
tographer. She takes from every race its
best elements and is to mold them into one
American character.

6 81

What does all this mean? If there be a
purpose running through the life of the
world, is it not plain that one thought in the
divine plan was that in this republic should
be unfolded and developed in the presence of
the world the Christian doctrine of the
fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of
man? To the full realization of this some-
thing more is necessary than a mere unit-
ing in the active duties of our daily life;
something more than interracial marriages
bringing the races into one common stock;
something more than a mingling in toil,
whether on the farm, in the shop, the factory
or the office, the working together in the
same political parties, or the prosecution of
the same lines of study and identification in
all material interests. Beyond all this must
be developed the essentials of a pure family
life, a community of thought and purpose in
those higher things which make for the bet-
terment of all. It is not that here one race
shall be enabled to rise to the fullest develop-
ment of its capacity, while all other races
are ministering to that uplifting, but rather
that each and every one of every race should
be given the amplest opportunity for his own
elevation. No perfect family exists where
one is bound down with the lower duties in
order that another shall rise. It exists only
82

when each is given the fullest possible scope
for his own uprising. There will always be
diversity of work, but the open door must
be before every one.

For the realization of this can anything be
more potent than the golden rule, the pres-
ence of the spirit of Christianity? Under
its power each will be faithful in the work
he does, while evermore to him is out-
stretched the helping hand of all. And so
it will be that all races mingling in the com-
mon American life will give to it of their
best, and here, first of all, will be realized the
fulfillment of the final prayer of the Master
in the Upper Chamber, "That they all may
be one ; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in
Thee." Surely this republic may glory in
the opportunity through its Christian life
and power of winning for herself the great
glory of such achievement.

Another door of promise is open in the
opportunity before her of realizing within
her borders the highest standard of life. One
of the pressing dangers facing all civilized
nations is the enervating influence of wealth
and great material development. That was
the one thing which sapped the life of the
great nations of antiquity and buried them
in the tombs of their own vices. In each
there was a wonderful accumulation of

83

wealth, marvelous manifestations of mate-
rial splendor, but the moral character of
their citizens was undermined thereby and
they declined and fell. The hanging gar-
dens of Babylon, the pyramids of Egypt, the
sculptured beauty which lined the streets of
Athens, and all that luxurious display which
attended the centering in Rome of the prod-
ucts of the civilizations of the earth in their
day provoked the admiration and were the
boast of their citizens. They passed through
the same round of experience. Wealth
brought luxury, luxury brought vice and vice
was followed by ruin and decay. And now
we dig through the accumulating dust of cen-
turies to find even the ruins of their vanished
splendor.

To-day we are in the presence of a like
marvelous material development. It is one
of the phenomena which attracts everybody's
attention. Yon hear on all sides descriptions
of the wonderful things which the scientific
mind and the ingenious skill of the country
is accomplishing. The skyscrapers, the tun-
nels, the railroads, the mighty steamships,
the telegraph, the cable, the telephone, all
these things, with their accompanying con-
veniences and luxuries, are before us. I
am not here to say aught against the mag-
nificence of this material development, but,

8 4

remember it is only a means to an end. We
do not live to make bricks and mortar, nor
to build skyscrapers. You go on the banks
of the Nile, and there, rivalling all that we
have builded, stand those gloomy, lofty pyra-
mids, as they have stood for century after
century, looking out over the silent sands,
speaking no word to humanity of cheer and
encouragement, telling no tale of something
done for the betterment of the race, and in
their cold, sad solitude witnesses only to
unrequited toil in behalf of men whose
names have almost vanished from history.
Macauley, in one of his beautiful essays,
suggests that possibly the time may come
when some South Sea Islander will stand on
the broken arches of London Bridge, look-
ing upon the deserted ruins of that city and
wondering at the civilization that in it once
prevailed. That which alone will save this
country from the destiny which has attended
those nations which have vanished into ob-
livion, that which will make our marvelous
material development something for the
glory of humanity and the upbuilding and
permanence of this republic, is the putting
into the life of the nation the conviction
that the purpose and end of all is the build-
ing up of a better manhood and womanhood.
How is this to be accomplished? Not

85

certainly by giving up all our thought to
material development. "As a man thinketh,
so is he." And if the nation puts all its
energies and thought into simply the work
of extending its commerce, improving its
highways, building up great cities and add-
ing to its manufactures, it may expect the
fate which attended those departed nations.

Neither is it accomplished by any incul-
cation of the merely utilitarian philosophy of
a selfish morality. Honesty undoubtedly is
the best policy. It is a maxim, good in itself,
but if the only thought is of the pecuniary
results of such a policy it will fail. He who
is honest in his dealings simply because of
the social prestige and position it secures will
never develop his higher nature, but will
always live along the lower lines. You must
fill the soul with the impulses of the higher
spirit of righteousness, the spirit that makes
justice and uprightness things to be sought
after because of their own blessed influences
upon the individual — that spirit which is
measured not by its capacity for coinage into
dollars, but by its power upon the life. The
better life rests less on the prohibitions of
the Ten Commandments and more on the
parable of the Good Samaritan and the
Golden Rule. The rich man who came to the
Master, declared in reference to the Com-
86

mandments, "All these have I kept from my
youth up," but his weakness was pierced by
the searching reply, "One thing thou yet
lackest ; go — sell whatsoever thou hast — and
follow me." In other words, Christianity,
entering into the life of the individual, and
thus into the life of the nation, is the only
sure antidote for the poisonous touch of mere
material prosperity. Do you ever doubt the
outcome, or dread to think of the possible
future of the republic ? Remember that —

"Behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping
watch above His own."

Another illustration is in its influence for
peace in the world. Christianity is called the
gospel of peace. Among the names which
in prophecy were ascribed to its founder is
that of "Prince of Peace." At the time of
his birth it is said that the doors of the
Temple of Janus in Rome were closed by
reason of the fact that peace for the time
being prevailed in all the nations. Among
the last words to his disciples in the upper
chamber were, "Peace I leave with you."
The dream of the warring world has ever
been of the coming of a time when peace

87

should prevail. War, however just, how-
ever righteous, is attended with unspeakable
horrors. All accept General Sherman's char-
acterization that "war is hell." It is to the
glory of this nation that it has already done
so much in the interests of peace and to
minimize the horrors of war. In Jay's
Treaty with Great Britain, in 1794, there
were stipulations against the confiscation of
debts due from the individuals of the one
nation to individuals of the other, and for
the peaceful residence of citizens of either
nation in the territory of the other during
the continuance of the war. At the time
of the French Revolution our govern-
ment issued stringent orders in respect to
the preservation of neutrality — so stringent
as to call from Mr. Hall, the recent leading
English writer on international law, the
declaration that "the policy of the United
States in 1793 constitutes an epoch in the
development of the usages of neutrality."
During the administration of Mr. Monroe
our government proposed to France, Eng-
land and Russia, that in times of war mer-
chant vessels and their cargoes belonging to
subjects of belligerent powers should be ex-
empt from capture. While we did not assent
in 1856 to the Declaration of Paris, by
which privateering was abolished, we of-
88

fered to agree to it if the nations would con-
sent that private property on the seas should
be free from capture. Since then we have
agreed to the abolition of privateering. The
proclamations of our Presidents at the com-
mencements of recent wars and the decisions
of our Supreme Court have been along the
line of ameliorating the hardships of war.
We stood with Great Britain at The Hague
Conference as the most earnest advocates of
the establishment of an international arbitra-
tion tribunal, and in the Orient, China and
Japan each recognize this government as of
all, the most free from selfish motives in its
treatment of them and action for them. The
integrity of China depends on this republic,
and the territorial limits of the present war
have been narrowed at our instance. Our
international relations have been lifted from
the lower to a higher plane. Diplomatic
language is no longer a means of concealing,
but of expressing thought and purpose.
Neither Machiavelli nor Tallyrand is the
type of American diplomacy.

Does the day of peace seem a long way
off? Think of the ages upon ages during
which, even within the limits of a nation with
its compact and unifying forces, has been
evolving the supremacy of right over might
and the settlement of disputes by judicial

8 9

action rather than physical force. We have
no reason to expect a speedy coming of the
day when the judicial function will settle all
disputes between nations. A nation may be
born in a day, but the great truths which
make for the glory and uplift of the race
only through long ages permeate and con-
trol humanity. We must have the divine
patience and understand the divine mathe-
matics of a thousand years as one day.
There w T ill yet be wars and rumors of wars.
Our own loved land will not be exempt. The
cry for a larger navy will long be a party
slogan. The air will be resonant with the
blare of bugles. The tramp, tramp, of armed
battalions will be along our streets. Statues
of our great commanders will be seen in all
our parks and buildings, and present history
will be filled with the story of military and
naval achievements. But the leaven of the
immortal truth that right rather than might
attests the ideal life is already working in
the mass of humanity, and slowly it will
leaven the whole lump. I am not here to
make light of the patriotic devotion of our
military and naval heroes. I would not take
one jot or title from all the glory which at-
tends our army and navy and crowns with
laurel its heroes. But at the same time I
want to affirm my faith that the laurels of
90

peace are more enduring than those of war.
Time, which is the Almighty's great right
hand of recompense, will brighten the one
while it dims the other. John Marshall will
be remembered when Winfield Scott is for-
gotten. In the far off future the names of
our greatest commanders will fill a lessening
space in the horizon of history, while with
ever brightening splendor will shine the
name of America's peace-loving and golden-
rule diplomat, Secretary John Hay. The
measure of fame will be meted out by Him
who has declared that He will lay judgment
to the line and righteousness to the plummet.
Is not it a great thing to be a leader among
the nations in the effort to bring on that
day when the sword shall be beaten into the
ploughshare and the spear into the pruning
hook, and when war shall cease? And the
more thoroughly this republic is filled with
the spirit of the gospel, the more universal
the rule of Christianity in the hearts of our
people, the more certainly will she ever be
the welcome leader in movements for peace
among the nations.

Nineteen centuries ago there broke upon
the startled ears of Judea's shepherds watch-
ing their flocks beside the village of Bethle-
hem, the only angel's song ever heard by the
children of earth:

91

"It came upon the midnight clear,

That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth

To touch their harps of gold :
' Peace on the earth, good-will to men
From Heaven's all gracious king/ '

The air above Judea's plains no longer
pulsates with the waves of this celestial song.
For sad and weary centuries the march of
humanity upwards has been through strife
and blood. But a growing echo of the heav-
enly music is filling the hearts of men and
the time will come, the blessed time will
come —

"When the whole world gives back the song
Which now the angels sing."

One thing more. Whatever difference of
opinion there may be as to the divinity of
the Man of Galilee, His position as a man
is confessedly supreme. Renan, the brilliant
French writer, closed his life of Christ with
these words :

"Whatever the unexpected phenomena of
the future, Jesus will never be surpassed.
His worship will constantly renew its youth,
the legend of His life will bring ceaseless
tears, his sufferings will soften the best
92

hearts; all the ages will proclaim that,
amongst the sons of men, none has been
born who is greater than Jesus."

By common consent he stands the most
potent individual force for the highest
things of life. How strange it is that a
Galilean youth, away from the centers of
civilization, untaught in the schools, living
a humble life among country people, famil-
iar with poverty and having no place
whereon to lay His head, dying at the age of
thirty-three, after only three years of public
presentation of Himself, at the time making
so little impression on the life of the world
that only a single word or two respecting
Him is found in the records of Rome, the
great center of civilization — should now,
after the lapse of nineteen centuries, be re-
vered as Divine by millions upon millions, be
universally acknowledged as the most up-
lifting power known to humanity and whose
power is ever widening until it touches all
quarters of the globe. Faith in Him goes
hand in hand with the highest civilization,
and all realize that the more His spirit enters
into one's life the better that life becomes.
In the light of this admitted fact, can any
one look thoughtfully upon the future of
this nation without believing that if His
spirit shall become more and more potent

93

not merely the individual citizens, but the
nation as a whole will rise in all the ele-
ments of moral grandeur and power.

With patriotic and prophetic vision we
see our beloved country advancing, not alone
along the lines of material prosperity and
accumulating wealth, but also along the bet-
ter lines of increasing intelligence and a
loftier sense of duty. We see her quickened
by the ennobling power of the golden rule,
and the spirit of the Good Samaritan, bid-
ding all her citizens to seek first the king-
dom of God and its righteousness; intro-
ducing into the vocabulary of international
law the blessed word neighbor, and leading
humanity along the kindly ways of peace
and mutual helpfulness until "out of every
kindred, and tongue, and people, and na-
tion" shall rise a glad psalm of thanksgiving
and joy that in the good providence of the
Almighty there has been planted upon these
western shores the living and growing tree
of liberty, education and Christian princi-
ples.

Young gentlemen, to you, as to compara-
tively few in the long lapse of centuries,
comes the magnificent opportunity. Before
you is the open door to great achievement
and great usefulness. With rich endow-
ment of youth, health, friends and educa-
94

tion you stand in the morning hours of that
which is to be a century of unsurpassed sig-
nificance. We look back on the last fifty
years as years of wonderful scientific devel-
opment and marvelous inventions, yet Lord
Kelvin, perhaps the greatest scientist of to-
day, said in substance, not long since, that,
wonderful as have been the accomplishments
in these respects during those years, we are
trembling on the verge of inventions and
discoveries as far surpassing them as they
do any that have gone before. That declara-
tion coming from such a mind was and is
prophetic. Since then wireless telegraphy
has come, and who shall guess the next mar-
vel?

The spirit of liberty is shaking thrones
and dynasties the world over, and making
government of the people, by the people, and
for the people, a nearer fact. Even that great
embodiment of despotism among civilized
nations, Russia, is now rocking from one
end to the other through its dynamic explo-
sions. Education is sweeping through the
world and the common school is lifting the
masses up to a higher level and a stronger
citizenship. Engineering skill seems to
know no limits. Time and space are abol-
ished. Steam is slow and giving place to
electricity. Gigantic combinations of capital

95

grapple without hesitation gigantic schemes
of improvement. Overflowing streams of
commerce circle the world. The human
brain is under constant strain. Life has
become strenuous. Every one is throwing
into the great cauldron of public opinion
some scheme or plan or idea, practical or
visionary, sensible or foolish, until it seems
as though beside that cauldron were ever
present the witches of Macbeth chanting —

"Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble."

Out of this tremendous activity, these gi-
gantic combinations, will come achievements
marvelous beyond even the flights of fancy.
Into this century with all its possibilities you
enter as young men. You have the grasp
of a lifetime upon them. Your presence in
this institution is to fit yourselves to take
part in those achievements. I know not
what may be your respective places in life.
The avenues of labor and usefulness are
many and pointing in diverse directions.
Business, science, art, medicine, law, theol-
ogy, all are before you. In no country on the
face of the globe is there an equal oppor-
tunity for the individual brain and the per-
sonal force. There is that freedom which

9 6

gives ample scope for individual activities.
All that you do and achieve will enter into
and become part of the national glory or the
national shame. You can make your names
honored ones in the history of the republic,
or by- words and a reproach. You may re-
peat the story of Alexander Hamilton or
that of Aaron Burr.

I cannot doubt your choice and purpose.
No man covets infamy and the young, thank
God, have lofty ideals.

"Fear not to build thine eyrie in the heights

Where golden splendors play;
And trust thyself unto thine inmost soul,

In simple faith alway;
For God will make divinely real
The highest forms of thine ideal."

How can those ideals be best incorporated
into your lives and thus into the life of the
nation? You know what a Christian home
is, even if not brought up in one. Whether
a humble one with scanty furnishings, or a
more pretentious one with costlier adorn-
ments, in each you found truthfulness,
purity; the spirit of peace was upon it; in-
dustry dwelt there, self-respect in the indi-
vidual and mutual respect in all. Will you
add one more to the many of those homes
7 97

in the land? You can bring to it strength
and ability to work. You can bring culti-
vated intelligence and the delights of litera-
ture and science. You may introduce into
it the sweet and refining touch of music and
the other arts. You may place on the other
side of the table the angel of the household,
whose gentleness and grace add so much to
the sweetness of home life. Crown all these
with the inspirations which come from
Christianity, place the Bible on your table
and enshrine the Master in your heart and
you may be sure you are building up a home
which will be not merely peace and blessing
to you, but also for the strength and glory
of the republic. And when the evening of life
comes nigh and you see such homes multiply
in the land, this nation become more thor-
oughly filled with the spirit and principles
of Christianity, more justly and universally
entitled to the appellation of a Christian
nation, you will sing with Julia Ward
Howe:

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the com-
ing of the Lord."

9 8

SOCIAL LAW IN THE

SPIRITUAL WORLD

Studies in Human and Divine Inter-Relationship

BY

Rufus M. Jones, A.M., Litt. D.

Professor of Philosophy in Haverford College, Pa.

This is a fresh interpretation of the deep-
est problems of life. It discusses the most
interesting phases of recent psychological in-
vestigation into spiritual subjects.
' ' Professor Jones offers here a series of studies
on the nature and meaning of Personality.
He is at home in modern psychology and tells
it effectively for his purpose in freedom from
technicalities. ' '—The Outlook.
"The author has written the twelve chapters
of this book dealing with such subjects as The
Meaning of Personality, The Realization of
Persons, The Sub-Conscious Life, The Inner
Light, etc., etc., with an aim to show through
Psychology, as Drummond showed through
Biology, that life can be unified from top to
bottom." — Christian Work and the Evan-
gelist.

"The author bears a unique equipment for
the task, having stndied Philosophy at Harvard
under Royce and Palmer, and acquired the art
of presenting it to untrained thinkers in his
capacity of Professor of Philosophy at Haver-
ford College." — British Friend.

12mo. 272 pages. Extra Vellum Cloth,

Gilt Top, Uncut Edges. Price $1.25

Net (Postage 10 Cents).

THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY

PHILADELPHIA, PA.

Practical Christianity

By Rufus M. Jones, A.M., Litt.D.

Professor of Philosophy at
Haverford College

This is a collection of short, prac-
tical articles on important religious sub-
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thinking man must meet in a practical
way, and it contains a positive message
for the times. v

In the fifty-three essays many of the
most important phases of the spiritual life
receive consideration, and the notes of
hope and victory, and faith in the over-
coming life, are everywhere manifest.
It is a book which should appeal to all
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contains a suggestive chapter on ' ' The
Message of Quakerism.''

12mo. 208 Pages. Oxford

laid paper. Bound in

silk cloth, gilt top.

Price $1.00

postpaid.

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The Roots of Christian

Teaching as Found
in the Old Testament

By George Aaron Barton, A.M., Ph.D.,

Associate Professor of Biblical Literature and Semitic

Languages in Bryn Mawr College.

Author of " A Sketch of Semitic Origin*," Etc., Etc.

This volume has been written from the
standpoint of modern knowledge and modern
methods, for those who would study the Old
Testament devotionally . It gives brief sketches
of Old Testament ideas and institutions mingled
with character-studies of a number of Old Tes
tament heroes, with brief meditations upon the
great themes of Christian truth, Christian
character and Christian duty as foreshadowed
in the Old Testament Revelation. It is written
in a pleasing, popular style for the lay reader.

" Taken in connection with Professor Bar-
ton's noteworthy, critical work on "Semitic
Origins," this series of brief meditations for
busy men and women testifies especially to
those who shrink from modern views of the
Old Testament, and that critical studies yield
devotional fruit. ****** Devotional
books of this sort are rare, and one which can
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tradictions of modern learning, is especially
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A History

OF

The Society of Friends
in America

BY

ALLEN C. THOMAS, A.M.

HAVERFORD COLLEGE
AND

RICHARD H. THOMAS, M.D.

BALTIMORE, MD.

NEW AND REVISED EDITION, 1905

Brought down to date and including valu-
able statistics and information in regard to
the Society of Friends in America.

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The Life and Letters

OF

%ichardH. Thomas, M.D.

BY HIS WIFE

ANNA BRETHWAITE THOMAS

With a Preface by

J. RENDEL HARRIS, Litt.D.

Illustrated with Portraits and Scenes
Connected with His Life.

This is the life story of a high-souled and
valiant man; a spiritual teacher in the Society of
Friends, well-known and beloved in America and
England.

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rather, he turned these things into spiritual
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now told may help many readers to find the
real quality and power of it."

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12mo. 438 pp. Bound in Cloth.
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